Facebook Suicide
A recent study states that a person’s happiness can be determined by looking at their Facebook profile. Apparently, people who smile in their photos and tag others are happier, and are connected through Facebook to groups that are happier and larger than those of less happy people. I’ve told this to four different people, who were all horrified by this news. All four hate their smiles.
The article mentions the concept of social contagion, which is an old idea that refers to how behaviors spread quickly in a social group. In this case, that behavior is happiness. The study claims that being Facebook friends with a happy person increases your happiness. This knowledge made me immediately consider how many miserable people I’m friends with.
I’m torn about how I should feel about Facebook. Does it make me happy? On one hand, it has connected me to people I thought I lost, and in a way strengthened bonds with people I know by allowing us to share our lives and communicate in small, symbolic ways. It has also broadened my awareness of events and movements, and provided TNG with a marketing tool that has raised our profile and made our events well attended. On the other hand, I’ve felt increasingly alienated by it.
I am connected to over 200 friends, most of which I never actively sought to be Facebook friends with (they have “added” me). I see their vacation photos, know what mundane tasks they are doing at all hours of the day, am privy to how they are feeling, and can voyeuristically spy on their conversations with other people that I don’t even know. However, with the vast majority of these people, I have never had a deeply personal conversation, or even a moderately personal conversation. I don’t know their history. I’ve never shared a meal or taken a trip with them. What I do have is a constantly evolving understanding of their projected identity, a 15 minutes of fame on constant repeat, and the audience is me. That, and I know how they look in a swimsuit.
I’ve been distrustful of Facebook, disturbed by the disconnected way it connects me to others (or at least the crafted image of others) and how it commercializes my friendships by extracting profit from social interactions (Facebook sells your "interests" to retailers). I’ve even considered committing “Facebook Suicide” in favor of more traditional friendship investments. However, I realize that perhaps I shouldn’t take such a dramatic step without first fully embracing Facebook and finding out if it can truly improve and deepen my relationships with others. Thus, with the new year I’m embracing wall-to-wall interactions, status updates, postings to other profiles, and maybe even photos and “applications” (I’ve got a billion requests for applications/games, but I’ve rejected them all).
I’ll let you know how it goes.
5 comments:
Oh boy, I have a background in social psychology and I am off work today because I am sick. This will be a fun piece for me to unpack.
As the authors notes, emotional contagion is not new. It seems that Facebook provides only a new medium for proposing, tabulating, and analyzing measurable data related to happiness and social networks.
This articles provides a thoughful disctinction between ordinary Facebook friends and people who are actual friends to the degree of being photographed together. But this article fails to consider that people could be connected on Facebook as friends and share a few photographs, without really considering themselves friends. For example, a social gathering with many attendees could result in photos of people who made passing acquintance. ("It was great talking to you for five minutes, even though we're both drunk and won't put much stock in this conversation tomorrow. Look me up on Facebook!")
The authors also fail to consider that it might be the case that some people who are connected on Facebook as friends might actually be very good friends who do not have many or any photos together. My own experience tells me this is true, as I realize that I have hardly any photos with some of my closest friends.
Moreover, the authors do not draw any distinction between Facebook users with a large number of photos, and those with fewer images. As I write these words, Facebook reports that there are 125 pictures with me tagged. I have seen people with more than 1,000 photos of themselves. There should be some consideration given to the proportion of photos that include other people, in addition to the raw tally. It might also be worthwhile to evaluate the photos on an album basis, and not weigh each one equally, for those events when there is a particularly excited photographer who takes a large number of photos of the same people.
Also, Ben, I'm not familiar with this source (Edge), and it's difficult to evaluate because the "About Edge" link is broken. I'm trusting that you have pointed us to a reputable source.
I recently had to do a Facebook purge to remove people I didn't really know. The number of updates and photos of people I couldn't even remember adding was getting ridiculous.
I'm currently questioning adding high school classmates I haven't seen in almost 20 years. It's good to see them again, but do they really know me anymore? College friends are a little easier that way. I'm not so sure I want coworkers friended on Facebook. They don't always need to know that I was a total whore making out with a buncha bears at Blowoff or something like that.
As for the smiling profile pics, mine are radiant but misleading. I'm dead inside.
I started making the habit in the very beginning to block applications as they come along. But that wasn't enough. I would receive dozens every day. The I figured out it was because I have a double-A for my name.
So I had to include my real first name to avoid being the first guy to receive an Application request every single time. Because who really scrolls through their friends?
Making my firstname field Christopher.Aaron was accepted by the system and it's been smooth sailing ever since.
I rarely add friends and have kept my list under 30. You may already know adjusting the Privacy Settings and Account Settings allows you to control access to your information and limits the ability of others to search for your profile. This way you avoid awkward reunions and remain under the radar from unwanted "friends".
I really understand your feelings on the subject of Facebook, Ben. In response to such things as Facebook, Myspace, etc, I have felt as though it's all so pointless. I hardly ever communicate with people on either site & while I've added other people from the college I attend & random people who seem interesting in hopes of making friends in this new city I've thrust myself into I find myself coming out empty handed. No one I know seems to be up for a chat & no one I've tried to talk to seems to be keen on making friends. It's almost like reaching out into the darkness hoping to find something that doesn't seem to be there. Yes, I too sometimes think that conventional off-line relations with people are the best way to go, however living in a world where people seem to be so silent & secluded everywhere I find that trying to reach out to people & communicate in the virtual world of the internet is the only alternate choice for finding warmth & communication, however impossible it might seem at times. Nevertheless, it can only take one stone to change the flow of the stream & one voice to speak in a world held in the grip of silence...Good fortune, friend ^_^
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